So with pine needles still littering the streets - welcome to 2022, a year that we hoped, and may yet prove to be, a decisive turning point in the pandemic, but which currently feels like the opening weeks of 2021.
As we move slowly through the first month of a new year, I do wonder quite what 2022 has in store for us.
Hopefully you have all managed to enjoy time with family and friends and to recharge a few batteries over Christmas and New Year. I always found it a paradox that at the time of year when most of the country is looking forward to partying and merriment, we in council collection services view it with trepidation and fear, not knowing what the weather will do to disrupt things or how much the waste and recycling tonnages will increase. We are a strange breed, aren’t we?
The new year is a great opportunity to reflect, to better understand the achievements and lessons learnt from previous years, and that is exactly what we’ve been doing at WRAP. In 2020, WRAP undertook a review of the training opportunities available to local authority officers involved with the development, implementation and delivery of waste and recycling services and since then we have been working on addressing some of the apparent gaps in provision.
As we say goodbye to 2021, and hello to the new year ahead, plans are being put in place to help make 2022 a success. Businesses, Local Authorities, and individuals alike are implementing new year’s resolutions and continuing to tackle the challenges of COVID 19, supply chain difficulties, and climate change. To this end, Cromwell have highlighted three key considerations for the year ahead.